


The Piano.

by Myheroesrbands



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Maria Carbonell-Stark has a huge influence on this, Tony Stark Has A Heart, best of friends, endgame spoilers, really just morgan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-13 06:35:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18935398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Myheroesrbands/pseuds/Myheroesrbands
Summary: When Tony was six, his mom taught him how to play her piano.When Tony was fifty-two, he taught his daughter how to play his piano.





	The Piano.

**Author's Note:**

> So this took me a few weeks to write and honestly this was the only way that I could genuinely channel my grief. Basically, I've channeled my pain into writing and thinking Tony never died. Love that :)

_1976_

_“Come Antoñio. Today we will learn the piano.”_

When Tony was a kid, his mother made it her duty to make sure her son knew how to play the piano. Maria Carbonell-Stark was a beautiful pianist and she gracefully handed that gift down to her son. It was the one thing they were able to bond over that didn’t have to deal with socialites or abusive men.

Sitting on the stool and placing his hands on the keys, six-year-old Tony couldn’t help but feel small next to his mother. She was one of the bravest women he knew (at least until he met Pepper Potts a million years later). Above all else, at the time, she was his greatest influencer.

So he sat next to her and watched her hands move effortlessly across the keys and wanted nothing more than to be able to match her talent.

One day he would.

_1991_

When ~~his parents~~ his mother is killed, Tony didn’t know how to react.

Actually, he did.

He tore the Malibu mansion apart. Bottles of liquor were thrown around the living room. Contents from the kitchen, his room, and his father’s room were thrown out of the window (or anywhere really) with only one thing left untouched.

The Welmar Grand Piano his mom had cherished since the 1940s.

When he was confident he was no longer going to break anything (which took somewhere around 30 minutes), he sat on the piano stool and his hands softly grazed over the keys. Tears were still flowing from his eyes and he couldn’t handle the fact that he had unconsciously left a space for someone to sit next to him.

He wasn’t going to be over losing his mom.

He wasn’t going to be over Howard _killing_ his _mom_.

Losing himself for hours at the piano, Tony found himself playing the first song he learned — Fur Elise. His mother had a thing for Christmas songs and she absolutely adored Fur Elise.

It was like listening to a broken record as Tony continuously played the song.

“Tony?” His hands continued to move along the keys as his head popped above the piano. His best friend James Rhodes was standing in the doorway looking at the destruction Tony had left in his grief-stricken wake. “Tony? Hey man, I think-” Rhodey stopped himself. The music Tony was playing was so flawless and beautiful that he couldn’t recognize when it stopped.

“I miss her, Rhodey,” he sobbed.

“I know Tony. Come on.” Rhodey tried to move Tony from the stool but Tony shook his head in protest and stayed put.

“This is the only thing I have to remember her by. She never adored anything like she adored this. She shared this with me Rhodey. I can’t let her be forgotten like that.”

And he didn’t.

After he became CEO of Stark Industries, he started the Maria Stark Foundation that funds charities that help those impacted by domestic violence. He also started a shelter in his mother’s name for anyone who needs somewhere to live while they work on getting themselves back on their feet.

He even sponsored piano lessons at that shelter (and it’s subsequent branches throughout the country).

For the time being, Rhodey was the only person who knew about Tony’s connection to the piano and why it was so important to him.

It remained that way for several years.

Until Afghanistan.

_2008_

When Tony returned home after being kidnapped, he had nightmares — quite often and damaging if he had to be honest). The only effective solutions to dealing with them were building suits and playing the piano.

Building the Iron Man suits became second nature to him and before he realized it, he built over 20 suits in 2 years.

But playing the piano was something he did more often, It was what he had been doing for far longer.

The first time Pepper caught him playing, she was blown away at just how good he was and how he seemed so at ease when he played.

“How long have you played?” Was the question she asked. She only assumed it was his mother who taught him and he confirmed it for her.

“My mom taught me when I was around 6. It’s been my destresser since she died.” His head continued to move along to the music as he intensified the song with more deep tones and Pepper smiled softly. She always thought his coping mechanisms were unhealthy; the drinking, the partying but they were only a cover for the mechanism that actually worked — playing music.

_2012_

It was 2012 and he had driven a missile into an alien wormhole through space, destroying an alien army. It was 2012 and the Malibu mansion had just gotten blown up by a bunch of terrorists.

It was 2012 and he could no longer play his mother’s piano.

He spent a long while scolding himself because, in hindsight, he _knew_ he should have moved that piano to New York when he pushed to move there with the Avengers.

He was only home for the holidays. Not to stay permanently.

_Fuck._

That piano was the only connection he had to his mother that he could physically interact with and he couldn’t not let the feeling of worthlessness overtake him.

When everything with the Mandarin was sorted out and Tony got back to New York, the first thing he did was tear the penthouse floor of the Avengers Tower apart.

It was almost like he had lost his mom all over again and to be quite honest, Tony couldn’t handle it.

At all.

He was screaming so loud that he thought he was going to lose his voice and he was just throwing things around. He’d never been more grateful for Jarvis than in the moment he almost threw something out the window until Jarvis stepped in, “Sir. I’d advise heavily against that next course of action.”

Breathing heavily and holding the item in his hands, Tony couldn't help but throw it to the ground. “Jarvis. Fire up the workshop. Pull out the Grand Piano. It’s going to be a long night.”

Tony didn’t stop playing (well, only to drink) and by the time he was drunk, he was sobbing more than he was playing.

The next day was all business as if the previous 24 hours never happened.

_2015_

The next time he played the piano extensively was in 2015 when Jarvis died. Tony saw every creation of his as his child. Going by that logic, Tony automatically saw Jarvis as his firstborn. 

“He was just here.”

He let his sorrow come through in his song and didn’t bother telling Friday to soundproof the room when he ran in to let out his emotion.

He knew he should have been with the team strategizing their next move on Ultron, but he also knew he had the right to just _grieve_.

Rhodey was the first to find him. Aside from Tony, he had known Jarvis the longest and he also knew Tony’s true coping mechanism. Not wanting to disturb his best friend, Rhodey sat quietly and simply let the music flow through him — let himself feel the sorrow, the pain, and the absolute heartbreak Tony was feeling.

So caught up in their own feelings, neither Tony nor Rhodey notice the Avengers piling into the piano room. They were, luckily, able to sneak in undetected due to the dark lighting and loud music.

None but Natasha noticed just how sad Tony actually was because they didn’t understand how important Jarvis was to him.

Natasha made to show comfort by sitting on the edge of the stool next to Tony and placing a hand on his shoulder. Not getting the message, Tony abruptly stopped playing. For the first time, Tony felt uncomfortable in front of the piano and he felt like he couldn’t get away from it fast enough.

He quickly made his way out of the room and Rhodey turned to speak before he followed, “That seat is sacred. Not a single person sits next to him. No one.”

The Avengers were shocked that there was something about Tony Stark that they _didn't_ already know. However, They didn't dwell on it.

They had to fight.

_2016_

At that point, Tony couldn’t tell which was worse — fighting as a team or fighting each other — but after what the media called “The Avengers: Civil War”, he knew he wanted it all to stop. He was sick of using his hands to fight. He wanted to use them to play the piano and create. That was all he ever _truly_ wanted and he finally got the opportunity to do so with so much more free time.

With the Avengers Tower no longer occupied and the Avengers Compound not really his home, Tony moved his grand piano with him to his and Pepper’s new house on the lake.

He and Pepper finally started to settle down and the only thing Tony genuinely had to worry about (as Iron Man at least) was his new protege Peter Parker.

Now, he never really had to play the piano out of pain and sadness. Now he played it for Pepper on date nights or he played it to calm himself down or sometimes he even played bombastic songs simply for the pleasure of it.

_2018_

He had something going for him for a few years.

Until everything went to shit and he lost Peter in the fight with Thanos.

This was the one situation — one where he wasn’t near his only relief; the piano — he never wanted to be in.

Now he had to. He had to stabilize his stab wound and hope he could get up and make it to the ship nearby. Except the mean blue lady came to pick him up and she walked him to the ship that they eventually were able to make work.

Minutes turned into hours and hours turned into days and turned into weeks.

By Earth days, Tony counted he had been in space for exactly 35 days when food ran out.

Two days later he watched a glowing woman fly the Milano back to earth. When they touched the ground, he let out, “I lost the kid. I lost,” when Steve ran up to him and he sighed at the response, “We lost, Tony.”

When Pepper and Rhodey walked to hug their missing resident genius, Tony sobbed. His Spanish, broken from days of misuse, came out slowly. “ _Mi piano. Por favor.”*_

_2022_

He was doing it. He was finally out (Not really since half the population of the universe had to pay the price for his mistake) of the superhero life. He was finally _home._

Home with his daughter, Morgan, and his wife, Pepper.

His daughter who was four years old and a little bit too much for him to keep up with (but he loved the challenge).

“Morgan!” He called one evening. It wasn’t a school night so Pepper wouldn’t scold him too hard for keeping Morgan up after 8 pm. Usually, he would be scared at the thought of his wife possibly scolding him but this was important.

He was going to pass down to his daughter something that had been passed down to him; playing the piano.

When she appeared in front of him, he smiled softly. The wrinkles at the sides of his eyes showed his age and his happiness. If Pepper were looking at him, she definitely would have snapped a picture of how much love was on his face.

“Come on. Vamos a aprender el piano.”**

**Author's Note:**

> Translation: 
> 
> * Mi piano. Por favor: "My piano. Please."
> 
> ** Vamos a aprender el piano: "We are going to learn the piano."


End file.
